SDCC 07: The Force is With Family Guy

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A preview of the Star Wars-based season premiere and more.

By Robert Canning

The Family Guy panel consisted of a number of people that make the show happen. Included were Kara Vallow (producer), Alec Sulkin (writer/producer), Cherry Chevapravadumrong (co-producer), John Viener (voices), Dominic Polcino (director) and David A. Goodman (executive producer). Of course, the main focus of the panel was series creator and star Seth MacFarlane.

Before audience questions began, the jam-packed room was treated to several clips of what's sure to become a classic episode. Entitled, "Blue Harvest," the season premiere will be an hour-long Airplane style spoof of the first Star Wars film, all with the permission of Lucasfilm. In the hilarious clips, we saw that Peter plays Han, Lois is Leia, Stewie is Darth Vader, Chris is Luke, Brian is Chewbacca and Quagmire and Cleveland are C3-PO and R2-D2 respectively. The scenes shown had the crowd roaring with laughter.

The panel then gave small glimpses of episodes being prepared for the upcoming season. Some of what we can expect included an episode where Brian starts to show his age and the Griffins get a new dog. Another episode has Peter believing he's a pirate and includes a five-minute scene of Peter attempting to pick something up. There will also be episodes where Bonnie gives birth, Peter discovers he's an illegal alien who was born in Mexico and Goldman accidentally travels back to Nazi Germany and must be rescued by Brian and Stewie. Yet another episode that has us excited involves three parodies of Stephen King films, including a Misery segment staring Brian and Stewie.

When the audience questions began, much praise was given to Mr. MacFarlane for what many deemed the funniest show on television. Early inquiries regard how the show deals with censorship, causing MacFarlane to state, "The FCC is a thorn in our side." He went on to explain we are now living in a post-Janet Jackson world. Vallow explained that it's mostly poop jokes and religious jokes that get cut. MacFarlane recalled a scene that never made it to air which was set at the Last Supper. Jesus tells his disciples to drink from his cup, which they do, then adds, "for this is my blood." The 12 men all do a spit take with their drinks. "It's been 2,009 years, right? Let's have a few laughs," MacFarlane said.

At times, MacFarlane admitted they must censor themselves. He recalled a scene that was cut from the episode where Peter begins to see Jewish people as magical beings. It was a scene where Peter first meets Weinstein that parodied the movie E.T. Peter hears a noise in the shed and throws a tennis ball in to investigate. Like the movie, the tennis ball comes rolling back out. Peter then throws in a quarter&#Array; which he never sees again. They decided on their own not to include in the final version of the episode.

MacFarlane also talked about the evolution of the series. He said this was important to prevent the show from becoming stagnated. The addition of a steady girlfriend for Brian last season was an effort to expand what the show was capable of portraying. True, Stewie will likely never evolve past the age of one, but as MacFarlane pointed out, "The rules are what we make them."

To close out the panel, MacFarlane was asked if he ever thought about a live-action version of the series. Apparently, this is something that has crossed his mind. In the role of Stewie he saw David Hyde Pierce. Rachel Leigh Cook would play Meg, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Chris and starring as Brian: Ann Coulter. We'll have to wait and see if his vision ever comes to fruition.